The Luna

Forty-five

Pain hits me like a train as my eyes try to peel open. Even that once simple task feels like a herculean effort, but somehow I manage to peek out my lashes.

Disorientation and a wave of dizziness wash over me as I try to turn my head to look around. Nothing looks familiar, but it's all a little blurry.

I groan as a pain in my shoulder throbs like it has its own heartbeat. A light turns on above me and it's like looking into the sun leaving me to close my eyes tightly fighting off the headache that's building.

Where am I?

The last thing I remember is Caspian sweeping me into his arms on stage. After that, it's all muddled. Just random flashes of the moon in the sky or Caspian smiling at me.

"Mia?" I hear my name but it sounds so far away, "Can you hear me, sweetie?"

I groan not knowing if this is real. If someone is really here with me or if I'm hallucinating because of the pain.

I gasp as something cold moves across my forehead, my back arching slightly off whatever I'm laying on. I barely feel something in my hand, but I squeeze it, looking for something to help me.

"She's still in too much pain," the voice whispers, and whatever I had been holding onto is pulled from me, "It's going to have to wait,"

There's a slight shuffling sound before a cold numbness begins at my right arm, quickly spreading through me. The pain begins to fade away, like cold water on hot skin and you can feel the cold working its way in melting away everything else.

My eyes start to feel heavy, much too heavy to try and open again. I can hear a soft humming, the tune so familiar to me, but I can't place it before I'm falling back into cold darkness.

*

"Take it slow and start at the beginning. What do you remember?"

Caspian placed his hand on my back as he spoke to the pack. I can remember his mouth moving but I can hear nothing over the howls and cheers of the crowd.

"Mia?"

Caspian had carried me into the trees. The silence is such a stark contrast to the echoes of the howls but now the only thing I can really hear is the sound of my heart beating against my ribs is like war drums.

"It's okay,"

My wrist hurts and there is blood running down my arms and I turn to see the moon, full and bright perched in the sky.

"You're safe, Mia," Emily pulls my attention to her, snapping me out of my thoughts as her thumb gently wipes the tears from my cheeks.

My eyes scan the stoic faces of the council members standing around my hospital bed. They've been here since I've woken up, hovering around me like vultures politely demanding answers to their questions. It's easy to see that they are growing a little impatient.

According to Emily before they started asking questions, I had sort of woken up before but was in too much pain and had to be sedated again. She has been by my side, constantly reassuring me and honestly, if it weren't for her stoping them when they get too pushy, I think the council would be less polite about getting the answers they're hoping for, but I'm not sure I have them.

Every now and then I get this feeling like there is something. Some emotion or snippet of time that my mind is trying to remember but just can't.

Emily won't tell me much of anything, afraid she would overwhelm me, and I have been too scared to ask about Austin and the others yet. The only thing I'm certain of is that we are still on Lotus pack land (a fact that I'm not happy with at all) and that there are things I can't remember.